breakdown. please?

He is having a bad season, but his value really lies in stolen bases. He is never going to be near the top of OPS or any comparable metric to that. If CC was stealing as his normal pace then this year wouldn’t be too bad. It wouldn’t make me happy, but I could live with it. If CC is not stealing then he really has little to no value at all.

It is in all aspects of the game that CC gives this team an advantage due to his speed. Even when he’s not running, the defense and pitching is worried about him running and that changes things. Same thing when he’s up to bat. It alters the way our opponents play the game. When you can do that, tehre is no numerical statistic you can put on how that helps the team. SBs are just one aspect of CCs speed that are very easy to track. His game can not be as easily dissected by common stats, because there are a lot of things he does that arent found in any statistic

That being said, Crawford is having the worst year of his career by the standards we hold him to.

of how base stealing threats affect pitchers. Do pitchers give up more hits or walks when they have a fast runner on base? There may even be some about defensive lapses and the like. As I recall, and I am being very tentative here, there did not seem to be any noticeable effect.

Statistics may not be able to capture everything, and few people think they are the be-all and end-all. But just about every factor one mentions leaves some trace, something that can be identified and measured. Given enough situations, a researcher can trace patterns built around issues like speedy base runners or clubhouse cancers and the like. While the results may be inconclusive, they can certainly be suggestive, and if they indicate no effect, the burden of proof that there is one shifts to those who claim it does exist. Simply referring to long time bromides or arguments like “it must be so; it is so obvious” are not convincing.

but the burden of proof is on you. Show me the studies that indicate there are effects.

I don’t think anyone doubts that speed is a useful tool for a player. The issue is whether it affects how the other team plays. It is one thing to point out that Crawford can take the extra base that Navarro can’t or that his stolen bases will put him in scoring position more often.

But that is not the same as saying that pitchers throw different pitches or are less effective when he is on base or that fielders become less reliable trying to rush plays. He may, for example, get more infield hits than another player because of his speed, but that fact shows up in his BA, OBP and such stats. But show me that his speed affects the other team in ways that are not already evident in the stats we have.